Get your camera ready: Jupiter and Venus will have an amazing encounter last week

The first week of March will bring another spectacle in the sky, when two celestial bodies meet in the sky. After the conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter on February 22nd, it will now be Venus and Jupiter that will pull off a gorgeous naked-eye encounter over the heads of Ticos.

It will be at dusk on March 1st when both planets are very close in the early evening. It might still be the next day but the best time would be next Wednesday because they will then start looking for more separation in the subsequent days.

“They are most likely seen after 6:15 p.m., and the planets are identified as two bright stars in the west that will be very close to each other,” explained Alejandra Leon Castilla, science educator and director of Fundación Cientec.

Venus was rising in the sky at dusk while Jupiter was the opposite: it seemed to be heading downwards which explained that they would bump into each other on the way. Leon Castilla explained that Jupiter will continue to descend but by March 27 it will no longer be visible in the sky.

Planets March 1stAnd They will be similar diagonally from each other, very close, and will be seen with the naked eye, but we must remember that they go to bed very early with Venus at about 7:48 pm when it is no longer visible. Anyone with a telescope can even take the opportunity to see Jupiter’s four largest moons: Ganymides, Callisto, Io and Europa,” he advised.

[ Luna, Júpiter y Venus se lucieron este 22 de febrero a simple vista ]

The spokeswoman added that from now on, the brightest star is at sunset Venus, It is easy to notice and will remain so for a long time. Therefore, suggest enjoying this opportunity to observe them together.

In astronomy, conjunction is called an optical phenomenon of convergence between celestial bodies which depends on the perspective of the observer, because the bodies involved are actually very far from each other in outer space.

The Earth’s rotation means that when someone looks at the stars, they realize that they appear to be moving across the sky. However, the stars are still: the Earth rotates on its axis as it revolves around the Sun. This gives that impression.

Depending on what time you look at the night sky, the stars appear to be in a different place than they were a few hours earlier. This is related to the possibility of seeing these two planets at this stage of the year, in addition to the convergence together.

Jupiter is an “external” planet, which means it orbits the sun, outside of Earth’s orbit. Venus is an “inner” planet, so it is seen because its orbit around the sun takes place inside our planet’s orbit. Venus takes 225 days to go around the sun while Jupiter takes 4,380 days (12 years).

Both of them revolve around the Sun in about the same plane (like the Earth) so that three planets periodically reach each other in their elliptical motion and remain before us for a few days with the great luxury of appearing almost together to the naked eye, since they will be this March 1st.